Wow is my body SCREWED.

i had the arrival of TOM today for the 3rd, yes thats right 3RD time in a month.

clearly ive been to my doctor this evening about it and he mentioned me trying to lose weight. He asked why no progress and i told him straight up, i try so hard to lose and i lose like a half ounce every couple of weeks. he got talking more and now hes testing me for PCOS and insulin resistance...

now obviously insulin resistance can be affected by foods, but i suck at what foods i should HEAVILY avoid.

anyone who is clever. can you help me? i really have to lose at least 30 pounds by June 23rd 2009. have to.

I also need a kick up the be-hind with the exercise thing, i suck at it, i enjoy once i do it but so much stuff i cant do because i have back problems and also shin splints. i dont know what to do to get out there more, i am walking but i dont think its making a blind bit of difference.


any help!?

Paula,

Didn't you an elliptical a while ago (I think before you went on your vacation)? What happened to it - are you using it at all?

What are you eating now? What's your regular meal plan and exercise routine. Maybe we can serve as sort of long-distance trainers for you and help you work out a plan that works~!

.

yeh i have an elliptical, i use it but can only manage 12 mins or so before my knees hurt, i think its because my legs are so long? is that normal or?

i also really like pilates but understand thats probably not great cardio.


okay so normal days meal plan:

Breakfast - granary toast with natural PB or marmite (like vegemite)
Snack: pear and clementine or carrots
Lunch: either a wholegrain wrap with tuna/chicken or leftovers from previous evening like chilli, soup or something
Snack: more fruit, occasionally 4-5 brazil nuts
dinner: anything from baked salmon and veggies/wholewheat pasta or sweet potatoes to chicken with salad or a steak with salad or chilli/stew all homemade with extra beans etc

i dont have sugar in my tea, i drink diet coke and water alot and use sweetener in tea when i have it but i need the caffeine hit sometimes!

Exercise well i have a pretty heavily walking job (retail) so on my feet all day, then i try and do 20 mins of a mix of cardio and free weights each day but normally 5 out of 7.

i dont DO running, my legs wont take it and i cant do the cold weather. i need stuff i can do inside, like my elliptical, dvds etc (just ordered 30DS)

i seriously feel like i should lose but i dont lose half as much and it gets harder every time i try, the only thing that shifts weight for me ever is atkins but i cant deal with zero fruit.

One thing I did that has helped me a lot with doing cardio besides trips to the gym is I put a TV and radio on a tall stand in front of an exercise bike.

It is the only TV in my house. I don't usually watch TV, not that I don't love watching it but I get addicted to it and thats all I'll do.

So now I turned on cable and have thise TV and of course I wanna watch the shows but I ride when I watch. I don't watch unless I am riding on the stationary bike. It limits the time watching TV because I get tired after about an hour on the bike (or less).

So I get the treat of watching TV but I have to ride the bike to get the treat. Kinda kooky but it works for me! LOL!

Paula,

I'm wondering if some serious strength training would help you out. I know you say you have a fairly physical job, but the problem with that is that our bodies become used to things we do on a regular basis. As your body adapts to your job, it becomes more efficient at managing that energy use. And if your exercise is only mimicking what you do at work (standing, walking, stretching) it's possible that it's just not going to be effective for you ever. Exercise needs to CHALLENGE your body ... to make it work in ways differently than it usually does.

I would look into investing in some hand weights, some resistance bands, and getting DVDs that focus on strength building and flexibility. These are things different from what you do every day and won't put the strain on your knees and legs the way the elliptical does.

Foodwise - you're eating a lot of fruit which is more carby than veggies. Can you sub some of your snack fruits for veggies? And not carrots, which are sweet, but something more savoury?

I'm seeing a lot of other carbs as well - toast, beans, fruit, pb, sweet potatoes ... all of those things are healthy but are high carb. When you're dealing with insulin resistance or pre-diabetes, those are the things that will stall you out. Try cutting back on the carbs (even the healthy ones) and adding more veggies.

I know I'm hammering the veggies, but I think they will help.

If it helps any - I'm in a similarly frustrating state. I've totally stalled out and have even gained back a few pounds, even though I've been on plan and am still exercising. I'm just annoyed and frustrated and trying like heck to figure out what's going on with my body. So if nothing else - I feel your pain!

.

aww thanks guys.. i know you are totally right, and i need to come up with some better ideas for breakfast (on the go) i eat in my car on the drive to work. bad i know but better than no breakfast right?

yeah i do eat alot of fruit, i guess one good snack would be the apples but with something fat/protein like some cheese or some pb?

what ideas can you give me for veggies to snack on? also breakfast ideas! love those!

thanks again, i hope you get outta your stall

I hope it is OK to butt in: I just finished reading a book about some of the things that can make it difficult to lose weight. It's called "Ultrametabolism" by Dr. Mark Hyman.

He talks a lot about different triggers which affect weight and one's ability to hang onto it--like inflammation and stress and so on.

Maybe if you read that you can ask your doctor to do some specific tests (Hyman gives some suggestions) to help figure out the problem.

Just as an example: he had one client who turned out to be allegic to gluten. It was causing many other problems as well: but she couldn't lose weight no matter what she did. There was another who was having some sort of reaction to the mold in her house--there could be lots of reaons other than food.

thankyou Alana! i have just bought it on ebay so i shall have a read... i think i am highly metabolically resistant to weight loss, so much so its painful! but anything to help would be awesome.

The doctor did say that if the tests prove negative he will send to me a specialist nutritionist and do the allergy testing etc to see if i am somehow allergic to something which is causing it.

i know deep down my body isnt happy i can feel it.

Have you taken a pregnancy test?

Is your multiple TOM's spotting or regular full fledged Periods?

Paula, for IR I'd suggest taking a look at the South Beach Diet if you don't want to do Atkins. SB does allow fruit and whole grains, but would help you figure out exactly how much of those things you can keep in your diet and continue to lose weight. (For a lot of SBers it seems to be one or two servings of grains and/or one or two servings of fruit per day.) There's lots of recipes over in those forums that you might check out for ideas for breakfasts and snacks, too.

Or, there's a book I have called The Insulin Resistance Diet which will pretty much teach you similar principles, as another option.

One thing you can try for breakfast are protein shakes, they are quite filling (even if they don't look like it).
For exercise (cardio) I would suggest you consider swimming. There is no impact on your joints and it does make you burn a whole lot of calories. People with back problems are often prescribed rehab exercises in water because of this. Because there is no impact with swimming, you do have to add some sort of weight training as Photo suggested so that you preserve your bone mass and of course strength.

I'm guessing on your age here, but it looks to me like you should be able to lose about a lb a week on about a 1790 calorie diet (with light activity, faster with moderate activity), if your metabolism is not screwed up for other medical reasons.

Are you tracking the calories you are consuming? A lb a week would get you down almost 30lbs by the end of June, if your metabolism is fairly normal. If you are not losing on that, then you probably need to adjust the kinds of food you are eating.

I also agree with cutting some of the fruit, and switching to more veggies and fewer carbs. Maybe limit yourself to one piece of fruit a day. One starchy carb a day, like a flour tortilla, or a serving of rice (or one small serving at lunch and dinner) and the rest veggies and some protein. A banana with a little peanut butter (natural, no sugar) might be a good breakfast. A dinner of boneless skinless chicken breast (1/4 oz) in veggie stir-fry over a cup of rice would be a good dinner. You might want to eliminate the red meat and stick with fish and chicken breast for awhile.

I pretty much allow myself all I can eat of certain veggies, and I really can't overeat if I'm stuffing myself with veggies. Combine that with necessary protien, and lots of water (not so much the diet sodas), and try to keep up with the muscle building (strength training) as well as cardio...

I know it's discouraging to feel like you are going nowhere. Good for you for going to the doc and trying to get a handle on this...and sticking to the weight loss and exercise plans even when it's tough.

One thing about a calorie counting diet, for me, is that you quickly learn that you get to eat a lot more if you are eating veggies!

Paula I eat a bag of nuts for breakfast, most days. It's usually on the go. And it is tasty and filling and there's nothing DIET about it. Either peanuts, almonds or cashews. Hey I bought macadamia nuts the other day... where did I put them???

PrettyPaula--

I'm at a current 203 lbs and I also have heavy TOM as well (I'm currently on BC pills to help with my TOM).

I'm also insulin/leptin resistant. I'd highly recommend you check out "The Rosedale Diet" by Dr. Ron Rosedale. You do lose weight on his program and his exercise recommendations would help you since the program doesn't call for hard-heavy exercising which could help your knees. (I just do walking as my main exercise, nothing crazy or high-impact.)

I've lost over 40 lbs in several months and haven't felt deprived once I finished the detox portion of his lifestyle plan! Extremely easy once you get into the routine and you do see the pounds drop off.

Pls feel free to contact me if you want more details on this program and how it works for me